Speed Is King

"UGHH!!" Elliot collapsed to his knees and started to gasp for breath. He grabbed a health potion and drained it in one big gulp. His wound immediately started to wiggle and close very visibly at high speed.

However, the pain didn't subside.

Not one bit.

"What the hell? Hawk? What's happening?" Elliot shouted.

[Unknown hostile substance detected.]

[Hostile substance corroding flesh.]

[Please remove it immediately.]

"Purgatory Fire Energy!" Elliot shouted in his mind and sent his energy to circle the strange substance which Divine Fighter called "Living Armor."

After doing so, the pain he felt finally subsided. However, he was unable to do anything to the Living Armor! It remained there, slowly corroding his Purgatory Fire Energy.

"No, it's not corroding it away. It's… It's feeding on it!" Elliot gasped with horror as he realized that the Living Armor's mass was increasing very slowly but very surely at that!

[Please remove it immediately.]

"I know! I want to remove it immediately as well!" Elliot raged. "Rather than telling me to do it, why don't you be more constructive and tell me how, damn it!"

[Please use Elemental Deconstruction and remove hostile substance immediately.]

"Elemental wha… Oh my god. I have Elemental Deconstruction from Red!" Elliot was stunned. He had received that skill when he made Red his Wind Apostle. But it seemed so useless that he didn't even think about it and simply put it at the back of his mind.

But who would have thought that it would be so useful at that moment!

Elliot immediately used it.

"Elemental Deconstruction!" He shouted internally and cast it on the Living Armor.

The skill clamped down on the Living Armor slightly, and then disappeared into nothing.

"What? It's not working! Wait, let me try it again this time, but with my Purgatory Fire Energy." Elliot thought.

He repeated the process he used for the Lightning Slash.

He started to cast Elemental Deconstruction and the forcefully rammed his Purgatory Fire Energy right before the skill was launched.

And true enough, Elemental Deconstruction clamped down on the Living Armor powerfully this time, and forcefully dissolved it!

WESHHHH.

As soon as the Living Armor dissolved, his Purgatory Fire Energy immediately absorbed it!

WHOOSH!!

"WHOAAA!!!" Elliot shouted in shock!

A surge of power suddenly shot through him!

His Purgatory Fire Energy roared into life all around his body completely unbidden.

His violet flames burned strongly and grew darker by a shade before it winked out as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Hawk? What happened to the Purgatory Fire Energy?" Elliot asked in surprise. "Did it just power up??"

[Purgatory Fire Energy is showing signs of a qualitative advancement.]

[Please consume more of the Unknown Death Energy to complete its full advancement.]

To say that Elliot was stunned would be the understatement of the decade.

If his jaw was detacheable, it would have immediately dropped to the ground at that moment!

"Death energy! So that's why my Purgatory Fire Energy infused Lightning Slash which had armor piercing effect was so effective!" Elliot whispered to himself as a host of realizations crashed upon him.

He was finally making a little bit of progress in the vast and epic information plot that seemed to elude him!

"And if the mysterious Life Seeds that the Shadow Parasites are after contain Life Energy and the Living Armor that the Second Brother found in an Ancient Inheritance site can be deconstructed to be Death Energy… And if both of them can be absorbed by my Purgatory Fire Energy… Then…"

"Elliot! Are you alright?" Khellendra called out from her communicator. "Did you just drive away that 5th brother dude?"

"I'm fine. Yes, he escaped before I could kill him. I was incapacitated for a while, but I am okay now." Elliot replied calmly. "How are things on your side?"

"We're fine. We just… got ourself a new puppy." Khellendra giggled.

"Puppy? What do you mean?" Elliot asked in complete confusion.

"They were supposed to be in a dangerous battle. When did it turn into a pet shopping spree?" Elliot thought to himself.

"We'll explain later. We are on our way back. If you're okay, Please check on Autumn!" Khellendra said.

"Right. I'm on it!" Elliot turned off his open channel and kept the stump of arm encased in Living Armor in his dimensional storage. After that, he immediately blinked towards the direction of where the fat dude had taken Autumn.

"Autumn! Where are you?" Elliot shouted.

There were no longer any sounds of battle.

After Autumn's powerful outburst of energy and Fat Wall's consequent release of his Living Armor, everything was silent.

"Over here!" A very calm Autumn called out.

Blink.

Elliot immediately blinked and appeared at her position.

The sight that greeted him the moment he materialized was a very surprising one.

It was Fat Wall totally encased in a transparent sphere of sorts!

He was completely covered in his Living Armor but he was also completely immobile within the transparent sphere.

"Wow. What happened here?" Elliot asked as he looked at Autumn in surprise.

"Oh nothing much. I couldn't pierce his armor no matter how much I tried, so I merely piled layer after layer of space energy on him to keep him locked down." Autumn replied rather airily.

She didn't forget that her issue with Elliot was unresolved!

But considering what Fat Wall had leaked to her about the situation of Fortune Mountain, her master would probably be too distracted to deal with her much.

So in actual fact, there was nothing else that needed to be discussed with Elliot. Her beef with him could be considered over.

But still, she hadn't heard any reconcilliatory words from Elliot, so technically, they were still at odds! Hence her airy voice.

However, Elliot was completely oblivious to her voice inflections as his eyes were completely focused on Fat Wall's Living Armor.

"That's a lot of Death Energy I could absorb." Elliot thought greedily to himself as he stared at Fat Wall's massive figure and licked his lips lightly. "Really, really a lot."